Downey Is Why Third Captain Is “Civil War”

Just as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” shook up the Marvel Universe and laid the groundwork for the upcoming “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” so to will next year’s “Captain America: Civil War” set a path for the subsequent two-part “Avengers: Infinity War” movie to follow.

One of the big components of ‘Civil War’ is actor Robert Downey Jr. who is reprising his role of Tony Stark/Iron Man in the film. In the ‘Civil War’ comics storyline, Tony Stark feuds with Steve Rogers over the Superhero Registration Act and becomes something of a villain at odds with Captain America – a story line that’s expected to be followed in the film.

In a new interview with Empire, Downey Jr. says ‘Ultron’ will lay the first ground work for Stark’s turn to the ‘dark side’:

“It’s natural to change your views. The main thing to me is, what sort of incident could occur, and what sort of framework could we find Tony in? The clues about where we might find him next are in Ultron. But what would it take for Tony to completely turn around everything he’s stood for?

Joss (Whedon) brings this up all the time. It’s kind of weird that these guys would have all these throw downs all over planet Earth and yet when the movie’s over, nobody minds. What would the American government do if this were real? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Tony doing something you wouldn’t imagine?”

Downey also revealed that had he turned down his involvement in ‘Civil War,’ the third “Captain America” film would have been quite different:

“They said to me, ‘If we have you, we can do this, or Cap 3 has to be something else.’ It’s nice to feel needed. And at this point it’s about helping each other, too. I look at it as a competition and I go, ‘Wow, maybe if these two franchises teamed up and I can take even a lesser position, with people I like and directors I respect, maybe we can keep things bumping along.'”

The publication also has details on the “Avengers: Age of Ultron” opening sequence, confirming it’s a Bond-style action sequence with the team assaulting the Eastern European castle of Hydra’s Baron Von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann).

Finally today, an apparent leak of a casting call sheet from “Captain America: Civil War” at MovieCastingCall.org appears to have revealed details of one key role in the project. The report suggests that “Rush” star Daniel Bruhl will play iconic Marvel villain Baron Zemo in the film.

Filming on “Captain America: Civil War” is slated to begin in Atlanta and run from April to August.